Fernandina Beach consultant presents new impact-fee study; parks fee falls while police and public‑facilities fees rise

Peter Napoli, a consultant with Stantec, told the Fernandina Beach City Commission on June 3 that his firm’s recalculation of the city’s impact fees would cut the parks fee while increasing police and public‑facilities charges and modestly raise the fire fee.

Napoli said impact fees are one‑time charges on new development intended to pay for expansion‑related capital — not operations or maintenance — and must be based on recent, localized data and held in separate accounts. He summarized recent statutory changes that require modest increases to be phased in (0–25% over two years, 25–50% over four years) and said increases above 50% cannot be adopted without showing “extraordinary circumstances.”

As presented, the city’s existing schedule included a fire fee of $0.36 per square foot, parks and recreation at $22.89 per square foot (residential only, per the consultant’s presentation), public facilities at $0.44 per square foot and police at $0.26 per square foot. Stantec’s recalculation produced a parks fee of $2.02 per square foot (about a 30% reduction from the presenter’s cited city number). Napoli reported a $6.7 million cost basis for fire (yielding $0.45/sq ft, a roughly 25% increase), a $9.6 million police basis (yielding about $0.43/sq ft, a larger increase) and a $13.8 million public‑facilities basis (about $0.67/sq ft). He said vehicles were included where statute allows.

Translating to a typical single‑family home, Napoli said the prior combined fees totaled roughly $6,000 per home and Stantec’s recalculation would lower that overall estimate to about $5,400 per new single‑family home, largely because the parks charge falls while other service fees rise and some increases would be phased in under state law.

Commissioners pressed Stantec and staff for data clarifications. Commissioner Poirier said he was "concerned that what you use to calculate the numbers is probably not as accurate as it could be" and asked staff to confirm whether enterprise assets — notably the municipal golf course and the marina — and recently removed or added beach walkovers were properly captured in the parks cost basis. Napoli said Stantec requested recent fixed‑asset inventories and CIP schedules at the start of the study and that the new fire station was added after an initial draft; he acknowledged refinements had been made since the materials in the commission packet.

City Manager Sarah Campbell gave the current impact‑fee fund balances, as provided by finance: Police $506,000; Fire $510,000; Parks $4,400,000; Public facilities $1,700,000. She said the Stantec contract was roughly $50,000 and that the contract scope allowed for some post‑study adjustments based on commission input.

A commissioner flagged a typographical footnote that named Pasco County in the commercial calculations; Napoli confirmed that was a front‑end typo and said Stantec used Nassau County property‑appraiser data for the models and could provide the underlying database and calculations with follow‑up materials.

Napoli and staff outlined next steps: commission direction to identify specific adjustments, Stantec refinements under the existing scope, a public hearing for adoption (with 90 days’ notice required before collecting new fees), and an October 1 target for implementation if the commission adopts the schedule. Commissioners signaled a consensus to return adjusted schedules for first reading after staff verifies asset lists and any necessary recalculations.

The workshop recessed for 20 minutes before the regular meeting.